To: The Honorable Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Peter MacKay, Re: his upcoming official visit
to Lebanon

The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of
Foreign Affairs,

Your upcoming official visit to Lebanon
this January 19 is certainly an undeniable evidence of your government’s concern
and seriousness in helping to ensure appropriate conditions and a favorable
environment for comprehensive, fair and sustainable solutions for the Middle
East crisis in general and the Lebanese problem in particular. This effective
and serious policy was adopted by your government from day one of its assuming
the reins of power in Canada.

The ethical, value-based, legal,
transparent, public and effective commitment by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to
combat terrorism by all means possible and available, wherever it exists and
under all its forms – states, organizations, institutions and individuals – has
undoubtedly returned Canada to its natural active role on the international
scene in general and the Middle East in particular, after long years of absence
and irrelevance.

On behalf of the members of the Lebanese
Canadian community who share our cultural values and our vision of peace,
democracy and human rights in Lebanon as it is in Canada, the LCCC extends its
gratitude for your support to the sovereignty, independence and freedom of
Lebanon, and wishes to bring the following to your attention:

The
issue of the legitimate security control of the Lebanese-Syrian borders is of
extreme importance to enable the Lebanese State to exert its authority over all
the national territory. Consequently, the delineation of these borders with the
effective assistance of the international community, as well as their control to
prevent weapons smuggling and armed infiltration from Syria into Lebanon, as
required by UN resolution 1701 which the Canadian government endorsed, are all
essential and pivotal tasks that must be focused on by the international
community and the Security Council. Lebanon will never know peace, security or
stability without the control of these borders by international forces equipped
with all the necessary equipment to executer the mission, provided they are
given the international mandate to do so with a resolution issued under Chapter
7 of the UN Charter. Unfortunately, the deployment of international, European or
other observers along the Syrian-Lebanese border without the presence of
peace-imposing military forces will not lead to the desired outcome, as the past
has amply demonstrated. In contrast, the end to the conflict in the Balkans or
in East Timor was made possible only through a concerted military deterrence
imposed by the international community.

The current confrontation in
Lebanon, which is merely a coup dissimulated behind a sit-in that began last
December 1st, are truly a confrontation between the forces of good on
one hand, and the forces of evil’s worldwide axis on the other. The latter
consists of Syria and Iran, represented in Lebanon by the fundamentalist and
sectarian Hezbollah, with its funding, arming, ideological training and purpose,
and ultimate leadership and decision-making residing in Iran, partnered with
marginal groups, individuals and parties that are alienated from their own
communities and who take their marching orders from Iran and the Syrian Baath
regime. In contrast, the forces of good are embodied by the vast majority of the
Lebanese people and civil society, Christian, Moslems and Druze, who are
endorsed, even if not vocally because of fear and terror, by individuals,
groups, members of the clergy, politicians and intellectuals of the Lebanese
Shiite community whose regions are dominated by Hezbollah through military
force, all manner of repression and terror, as well as generous funding from
Iran. Therein lays the supportive role that the countries of the Free World and
their civil societies, led by Canada, could play through their representation on
the Security Council and with the instruments of its resolutions.

The
main and ultimate objective which Hezbollah is aiming to achieve through its
sit-ins, again completely funded by Iran, is to topple the Lebanese government
and, subsequently, the regime by dealing a blow to the country’s institutions
with global chaos and lack of security. It is noteworthy that Hezbollah’s
Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah recently declared that his party is
acting to starve two million Lebanese, then instead of giving them bread, it
will give them swords with which to cut off the heads of the politicians and
rulers, and thus launch a revolution against the Lebanese regime to bring it
down and replace it with a sectarian regime mirrored on the Mullah regime of the
Islamic Republic of Iran.

As
for the immediate objectives of Hezbollah’s sit-ins and coup attempts, they are
to, first, scuttle the implementation of international resolutions – foremost of
which are resolutions 1559 and 1701, whose provisions call for the disarming of
Hezbollah and restricting all weapons into the hands of the legitimate armed
forces of the Lebanese State; second, to target the establishment of the
International Tribunal mandated with prosecuting the perpetrators of the
assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and all subsequent assassinations,
by voiding the resolution behind the Tribunal and obstructing the process
leading to it until it becomes impossible to carry out the prosecutions of those
who planned those crimes, led by senior Lebanese and Syrian officials and which
may include the Hezbollah leadership itself, as was recently revealed by the
Lebanese MP and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

We
consider that the rise of a strong Lebanese State requires the immediate action
of placing resolution 1701 under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. This will enable
the UN forces to assist the Lebanese authorities in carrying out the task of
collecting all unlawful and illegitimate weapons from the national territory,
control the border with Syria as well as Lebanon’s marine borders, and most
importantly, deny Hezbollah and the other militias under Iran’s and Syria’s
orders the capability to trigger wars with Israel from across the
Israeli-Lebanese border.

We recommend that you pay a visit to His
Eminence the Maronite Catholic Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir at his See
in Bkerki, in his capacity not only as the effective leader of the vast majority
of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholics and Christians and the embodiment of their
aspirations and hopes, but also as the spiritual religious reference that today
enjoys the support of the majority of Moslem leadership and community at large,
because of His Eminence’s patriotism, neutrality and clear vision with respect
to the much needed solutions to the present troubled situation.

We
hope that you will deal with the leaders of those Lebanese parties and groups,
who have become tools in the hands of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran for personal and
opportunistic objectives that conflict with the interests of Lebanon and the
Lebanese, exactly as you would deal during your visit with the leaders and
officials of Hezbollah, which is classified as a terrorist organization in
Canada. It is very critical that your meetings in Lebanon not lend themselves to
erroneous interpretations of the positions of your government that stand clearly
against any form of terrorism, not only for the Lebanese in Lebanon but also for
the Lebanese Canadian community here in Canada. Should you officially meet with
those trying to stage a coup against the State by suspect sit-ins, as they
operate under the umbrella of Hezbollah, incite against the State and its
institutions, and act to scuttle the implementation of international resolutions
and the return of freedoms and democracy, we sincerely ask that you communicate
to them the clear and official position of Canada and let that position be
clearly enunciated in the statements that follow those meetings.

Finally, we wish you a successful trip
and a safe return. We reiterate our support and our endorsement to your
government and to its policies vis-à-vis Lebanon, the Middle East and the War on
Terrorism.